On 23 May The Ministry of Labor (MOL) has announced that certain types of employees, including supervisory and administrative workers earning a monthly salary above NT$150,000, may be exempted from the same strict working hour requirements as other employees. If implemented, this amendment would resolve a long-standing issue raised by the ECCT's Human Resources (HR) committee. Since 2009, the committee has advocated that senior employees be exempted from regular working hour requirements.

Based on the MOL's interpretation of the recently revised Article 84-1 of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), the scope of exemptions can include work hours, overtime, days off, and females working at night. For example, highly paid managers can now agree to 12 hours of daily work as their regular work hours rather than being limited to eight regular work hours per day under the Act, and female managers can now work after 22:00 without obtaining prior consent from a Labor Management Meeting or a union.

To qualify for exemption, supervisory and administrative employees must be hired by the employers, manage the business, have the authority to promote or dismiss staff and decide their employment terms and take managerial positions. The new regulation was devised to allow certain categories of employees and their employers greater flexibility when negotiating contracts, although such contracts must be approved by a local government before they can take effect.

The ECCT welcomes this development and looks forward to its rapid implementation. This progress has been achieved thanks to 10 years of advocacy work by the ECCT's HR committees and diligent work conducted by government agencies, especially the National Development Council (NDC) and the Ministry of Labor.